Subject: IWG Bellevue letter
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 23:33:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chris Purdom
The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 2 congregations, 5 religious
organizations and 35 clergy from 12 faiths and denominations. If you are in
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in
other areas. Visit the web page at http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/ or
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/religion/orgs/iwg/
August 5, 1996
Bellevue Journal-American
PO Box 90130
Bellevue, WA 98009-9230
Dear Editors:
Like you, we also believe that marriage is sacred.
But we do not believe that the definition of marriage
involves the gender of the participants. You cited
"3,500 years of unchanging history," yet many faiths
have had gender-neutral definitions of marriage for
many years. Christian recognition of same-gender mar-
riages predates recognition of opposite-sex marriages,
which did not occur in the Catholic Church until the
fourteenth century.
The Unitarian Universalist Association, the
Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the
Presbyterian Church (USA) have all announced their
support for civil same-sex marriage within the last few
months. Within their denominations same-sex marriages
are performed by individual clergy and congregations.
Same-sex marriages are also performed as a matter
of policy within Reconstructionist Judaism, the
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches, Unity Fellowship Churches, the Evangelical
Anglican Church in America, many Quaker congregations
and some branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and
by individual congregations and clergy from the
Catholic, Old Catholic, United Church of Christ,
American Baptist, Southern Baptist, Episcopalian,
Evangelical Lutheran, Methodist, Neo-Pagan, and Zen
Buddhist traditions.
Whether the legal definition of civil marriage is
designed to discriminate against gays and lesbians is
not the question. It does in fact discriminate against
both sexual minorities and the religious bodies that
unite them in holy matrimony.
Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators